04 September 2009

Address to Friday Lunch Forum - Parliament House

"Open Letter to Premier Rees"

10 Positive Steps to turn around NSW

Premier, Everyone wants to begin turning the State’s fortunes around now - even though it’s nineteen months to the election. You are uniquely positioned to lead that change so below is a list of ten positive things you can do.

Although relatively easy steps, they will each have a big impact on the State and you could also see them as a self-help manual.

Step 1. Signal Change
Usually the election of a new Government signals that things must change. But as Premier you could signal that change now. Instead of talking about “the end of spin” or “having a red hot go”, just do what we all want done – sack Joe Tripodi.

No other minister better symbolises Labor’s conflict of interest in NSW. He should have gone long ago and his dismissal will send a strong message to everyone in Parliament and in the public sector.

Step 2. Restore Trust
Commit to a Referendum to establish a Recall Provision for State and Local Governments. If NSW is to retain fixed term elections, voters must have recourse to a Government Recall Provision. It will help restore trust between the community and Government.

Step 3. Reform Campaign Donations
Substantially increase public funding of election campaigns using the current re-imbursement model and extend the electronic blackout for campaign advertising from the final three days to a full seven days before Election Day. Also restrict the number of TV advertisements permitted during the previous four weeks of the campaign.

Step 4. Break down Bureaucratic Barriers
Restructure Government down to nine departments - as in the original Victorian model retained by Labor in that state - using former Olympics Minister Michael Knight or the under-employed Frank Sartor to manage the restructure.  Involve both sides of Parliament in the restructuring through a short-term Joint Committee of Parliament.

Similarly reduce the number of Cabinet Ministers to nine with each Minister and their department head reporting directly to the Premier. Junior ministers would assist their Cabinet colleagues.

Using a bureaucrat recruitment freeze and natural attrition (resignations and retirements), transfer decision-making, responsibilities and billions of dollars of resources from the back room to front line services especially in hospitals, schools and policing.

Unless both sides of politics agree to change the culture of the NSW Government, dragging it into the 21st Century, this State will continue to suffer petty politics, mediocre public administration and often extraordinarily expensive mismanagement.

Step 5. Infrastructure Certainty
Just as our Federal colleagues handed over control of monetary policy to the Reserve Bank under legislated guidelines, it’s time to move infrastructure beyond politics.

Appoint a truly independent and high profile Board to ensure transparency of infrastructure projects, determine requirements and priorities and manage delivery contracts.

Embracing transparency and shifting the information out of the bureaucracy and into the public domain, via a website, will be the mother of all power shifts and will engage the public in an ongoing debate about priorities.

Step 6. Empower Hospitals not Health Bureaucrats
Appoint local hospital boards and transfer power from Area Health Service bureaucracies. Our emergency departments and hospitals must be well resourced but are currently starved by expensive bureaucracies.

A visit to hospitals across the state will confirm the need to shift power from head office bureaucrats to frontline health professionals. As Jillian Skinner says we need a health system characterised by quality care, timely treatment, that is patient focussed and clinician led.

Step 7. Champion Education
In addition to embracing real transparency in education performance, fund a lift in the pre-school participation rate to 100% within four years - currently NSW languishes behind other states. Secondly, champion mathematics and science in primary and secondary schools to underpin our economic future.

Step 8. Every Crime Matters
Because every crime matters in local communities, change the Police Commissioner’s Contract to require active, ongoing promotion of community reporting of all crimes to lift reporting rates. Then resource our Police to reduce the real rates of crime including drug crime.

Engage the community in judicial appointments, require four weeks of public consideration before appointment of magistrates and judges.

Step 9. Competitive Public Transport
Outsource the management of one or more CityRail lines and secondary routes of Sydney Ferries to gain and measure the benefits of competition in public transport. Merge the various transport head offices and integrate marketing, scheduling, pricing and ticketing.

Our future must be in attracting greater numbers of people to safe, clean, reliable and frequent public transport including adopting a business plan to double taxi usage within 3 years.

Step 10. Renewable Energy
Demonstrate a real commitment to renewable energy by introducing a Gross Input Tariff and committing to large-scale solar generation.

Time for the first step
These are only the first steps. If a momentum for change can be built within the Government then everything can be changed for the better. NSW will lead Australia again but only if our leaders have the courage of their convictions.